Creative Direction

Who's this bloke then?

I've been doing the creative thing for a touch over 13 years. I'm incredibly lucky to do what I love for a job. I only really care about two things at work. 1. Can I produce good work here? 2. Will I learn something new? If i'm answering one or both of those each day i'm happy.

Whilst still at University (LCP) where I ended up gaining my first class honours degree in Digital Media Production, I started at the fabulous Stylorouge. I worked under veteran masters Rob O'Connor and Mark Higgenbottam. To this day, I owe Rob my 'start' in the industry and Mark more than he knows in terms of design principles and studio banter.

I got my hands inky doing album sleeves, my ears tuned doing sound and video editing, and my eyes properly focused for the first time working across their predominantly music industry based clients.

My foray into ad agencies came at CHI & Partners where I became a purely 'digital' creative for the first time working under Thiago de Moraes, the first of many Brazilians it transpires, they really are everywhere and annoyingly good too.

Whilst there I did the digital designer right of passage of banner design and production as well as microsites, full ECRM programmes, e-commerce site design. I learnt a lot there, and crammed in a lot of work. I also got my first award, a one show gold for the charity no more landmines.

After CHI, I went to a pure digital agency in the since departed Skive. There I learnt true collaborative production with a stellar tech department. Agile production as it should be, developers who glaze over for half a minute and then say yeah I can do that to pretty much anything you can think of really works wonders in getting the best out of a designer.

At Skive I also began to refine my motion graphics skills, pushing myself in Cinema 4D and After Effects, finishing up having worked on many pitch wins, web and mobile sites, apps and a shoot with Rafa Nadal.

Then it was JWT in London. 2 years in and i've had my first motion graphics work for television broadcast all over ITV for the Territorial Army. Produced global work for HSBC and Shell and something pretty massive in Android KITKAT.

Now i'm at Imagination working on their global Ford account. I've been to Detroit more times than I can remember, travelled Canada and the USA launching a new North American sized SUV, made lots of films in Europe and been part of lots motor shows and press conferences.

James is in my "Top 5 People I've Ever Worked With" principally (but not only) for his talent, commitment and intelligence.

Tom Ollerton - Innovation Director, We Are Social

The work he delivers always meets the brief, making James a pleasure to work with and there is a genuine sense that he is part of the team and will do everything possible to create something that genuinely delights everybody involved.